You are, of course, right – but the key thing here is what the perception of Zune and its wifi is to the “general public”, e.g. the people who are unlikely to bother reading SlashGear, Engadget or Gizmodo. I don’t know if they’ll spend enough time thinking about the ramifications of DRM to get past that initial “oh, it’s crippled” disappointment over the wireless.

Unfortunately, once you start talking about the other ways to transfer music – email, jump-drive, etc. – then you lose out on one of Microsoft’s big marketing points. If I were a potential buyer I’d be thinking “well I do that already with my iPod/Sansa/Zen – I might as well just buy the upgraded version of that”.

]]>By: Zunehttp://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926/#comment-3900
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 05:37:10 +0000http://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926.php#comment-3900I really don’t see the alternative to Microsoft applying the restrictions to both DRM and non-DRM content, without making a mockery of copy protection.

Otherwise, it would be a simple matter for one person to burn-and-rip a protected song to remove its DRM, and then wirelessly share the song as a non-DRM to other Zunes. The copy protection would then be lost through all generations of the song as it propogated through the Zune-to-Zune sharing network.

It’s a practical answer to a tough problem. What it means is that if a song is truly not subject to copy protection, you have to find some other means of getting it on your PC and sync’ing it with your Zune – e.g. via email, jump-drive, etc.

]]>By: Chris Davieshttp://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926/#comment-3148
Wed, 04 Oct 2006 08:57:33 +0000http://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926.php#comment-3148[quote comment=”3145″]Anyway, WE ARE SORRY for misleading you and your readers, although we made you feel happy for some hours!
[/quote]

That you did! It’s a shame that Microsoft are taking the ultra-locked-down route.

Anyway, as always we appreciate the feedback and comments :)

]]>By: Zune-Online.comhttp://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926/#comment-3145
Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:29:18 +0000http://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926.php#comment-3145I’m afraid I was wrong in my last comment about Zune Wifi sharing. The 3 days 3 plays is ACTIVE for DRM and non-DRM music files. I got an official answer on this.

Although its mechanics, are not so clear. ZuneInsider some weeks ago said that DRM won’t be added to non-DRM files by the Zune device. We thought that it was clear enough…. but it wasn’t.

Anyway, WE ARE SORRY for misleading you and your readers, although we made you feel happy for some hours!

But still remains the $15/month for unlimited music downloads (valid only for one month). You can select from 2 million songs available from the Zune Marketplace (under construction).

]]>By: Benjamin Niedhttp://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926/#comment-3144
Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:01:58 +0000http://www.slashgear.com/zune-wireless-update-2-041926.php#comment-3144It’s Microsoft; the fact that the device is locked-down tighter than a drum, DRM-wise, shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen what they’ve done in the past.